Coolmore Stud has added another promising sophomore to its roster as it was announced Thursday the powerhouse global breeding and racing operation had purchased an interest in impressive allowance winner Verrazano and will race him in partnership with Let’s Go Stable.

Coolmore also owns half of juvenile champion Shanghai Bobby, having bought into that colt prior to his victory in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile.

Both Shanghai Bobby and Verrazano are trained by Todd Pletcher and Pletcher himself has a long history of conditioning Coolmore runners. Verrazano put himself near the top of many Derby trail lists this past weekend when he won an one-mile allowance race at Gulfstream Park Saturday by 16 1/4 lengths.

Terms of the deal where not disclosed.

“When he broke his maiden there were some inquiries on their end (Coolmore) in terms of whether we would be open to doing a deal and it took probably a few weeks to get something together,” said Bryan Sullivan, who manages Let’s Go Stable along with Kevin Scatuorchio. “Obviously the horse ran a tremendous race on Saturday so both sides were very happy.

“Kevin’s father (Jim) owned (current Coolmore stallion) Scat Daddy and they’ve owned some other horses together so when they came to us it kind of made sense. They are one of the biggest if not the biggest around. I think it worked out for both of us. We can kind of enjoy the ride going forward.”

Sullivan added the partnership remains opens to running him as a 4-year-old.

“We are open to that but it would be dependent on what the horse does and things like that,” Sullivan said. “We’ll probably sometime in the fall get together and if we feel like he didn’t maximize his potential, they we would absolutely run him as a 4-year-old. If things go the other way I’m sure it will be a tough sell for them to keep him racing. But we’ll work together. We’re both very trusting in Todd and we’re just happy to be partners together.”

By More Than Ready, Verrazano has won his two career starts by a combined 24 lengths. The bay colt broke his maiden by 7 3/4 lengths at Gulfstream on Jan. 1 going 6 1/2 furlongs.

Alicia Wincze Hughes is the turf writer for the Lexington Herald-Leader. She started riding at age 8 and was a four-year member of the Pace University equestrian team.